An image duplicating apparatus is known in which the document to be duplicated is scanned by the movable units of the optical system driven for movement with respect to the document which is fixedly held in place. This mode of scanning a document in an image duplicating apparatus is herein referred to as scanner-moved scanning mode. Also known is an image duplicating apparatus in which the document to be duplicated is scanned by the optical system while the document is being moved with respect to the optical system which fixedly held in place. This mode of scanning a document in an image duplicating apparatus is herein referred to as document-moved scanning mode. The present invention is concerned with an image duplicating apparatus which has both the scanner-moved scanning mode and the document-moved scanning mode and which allows the user to select either of the two different scanning modes.
An image duplicating apparatus of the type having such document-moved and scanner-moved scanning modes may be equipped with any optional units or modules. Typical of such optional units are a document feeder unit and a page sorter unit.
The document feeder unit is installed on the document support table of the main module of an image duplicating apparatus and is used to automatically feed a plurality of documents one after another to the document support table of the main module during successive cycles of copying operation. The documents are placed on a document tray of the document feeder unit and are successively fed to the document support table of the main module. When the scanner-moved scanning mode is selected, the document thus fed to the document support table of the main module is fixedly held in place on the document support table and is scanned by the movable units of the optical system which are driven for movement along the document support table. When the document-moved scanning mode is selected, the document fed to the document support table of the main module is driven for movement at a fixed speed on the surface of the document support table and is scanned by the optical system which is fixed with respect to the document support table.
On the other hand, the page sorter unit is installed on the print-sheet discharge side of the main module of the duplicating apparatus. In an image duplicating apparatus equipped with the page sorter unit, printed outputs each having toner images duplicated from the original images on the document or documents scanned and thermally fixed under pressure are successively discharged from the main module and passed to the page sorter unit. The documents thus transferred one after another to the page sorter unit are all collected on a common tray or are selectively distributed to a plurality of bins depending on the mode of operation selected for the sorter unit.
The page sorter unit is operative to handle print sheets in any one of the different modes of operation which typically consist of an ordinary or non-sorting mode, a sorting mode, and a grouping mode.
When the ordinary or non-sorting mode is selected for the page sorter unit, the print sheets successively withdrawn from the main module of the apparatus are all passed to the main sheet discharge tray provided in the sorter unit. The print sheets thus passed to the main sheet discharge tray are stacked on one another in a sequence in which the print sheets have been discharged from the main module of the apparatus.
On the other hand, when the sorting mode is selected for the page sorter unit, the print sheets successively withdrawn from the main module of the apparatus are passed sequentially to the auxiliary sheet discharge bins also provided in the page sorter unit. When, for example, five documents are to be duplicated and three printed outputs are to be produced for each of the documents, three sets of print sheets consisting of five different pages for each set are distributed to three the auxiliary sheet discharge bins, respectively.
When the grouping mode of operation is selected for the page sorter unit, the printed outputs produced from the same document are passed all to the same auxiliary sheet discharge bin. Thus, the printed outputs produced from more than two documents are distributed to the discharge bins sequentially selected depending on the order of the documents scanned and duplicated. When, for example, five documents are to be duplicated and three printed outputs are to be produced for each of the documents, five sets of print sheets consisting of three identical pages for each set are distributed to five auxiliary sheet discharge bins, respectively. It may be noted that, when the grouping mode is selected, the scanner-moved scanning mode is exclusively selected as will be described in more detail.
In a scan-mode changeable image duplicating apparatus, whether the document-moved scanning mode is to be selected or the scanner-moved scanning mode is to be selected is determined upon the following considerations: